Disclaimer: Evangelion is owned byGainax and ZOE is owned by Konami.

Dr. Akagi Ritsuko and her long time friend Captain Katsuragi Misato once again found themselves in a conference room representing Nerv, as a new private company was about to reveal the latest Anti-Angel weapon. This time they were not at the Old Tokyo or Tokyo-1 ruins. The current location was a bit further to the west, near what used to be Osaka before Second Impact. The pair had an uneasy feeling about what was going to take place here today. Not that anyone could blame them, though each had different reasons. Misato was nervous because of the treat that whatever or better yet whoever had sabotaged the Jet Alone mecha might do the same thing to this weapons platform. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to crawl into another nuclear reactor in case what they were about to see lost control. Ritsuko was nervous because what she was about to see was a complete unknown. Last time she was the one that made the Jet Alone Mecha loose control, but now that was impossible. As up until a month ago no one have ever heard of this company BAHRAM not too mention what ever weapons they were developing. The only piece of information that was revealed about what they developed said that it was also had a humanoid mecha design and the assurance that the power source was not a nuclear reactor. Too many unknowns made her nervous and at the same time curious, she was still a scientist after all.

The door to the conference room opened up and everyone turned to the people that entered. It was not their hosts, however, that came in; the people entering through the door were the representatives from the Jet Alone. They apparently wanted to see who came in claiming they could succeed where the Jet Alone failed. Misato took note that they looked just as nervous as she felt, but also had a look of irritation on their faces. She had to smirk a little at that as she still remembered how arrogant they were the last time she saw them, "At least this BAHRAM has one thing going for them." She figured anyone that could irritate those pompous idiots had to have some good qualities.

Another five minutes went by and the door opened up and a man that seemed to be in his fifties entered the room. "Thank you for coming," the man greeted. "My name is Dr. McClain Lawrence and I shall be briefing you on our machine before the demonstration takes place. If you would all please have a seat then we shall get started." Outside Lawrence was calm and professional, inside he was mad. Naoko was suppose to accompany him for the briefing, but said she had to make some last minute checks on Idalo's programming. He knew she just said that so she would not have to face the extremely awkward run-in with her daughter. "And now I'm stuck facing everyone alone. She knows I have always hated this. If it wasn't for the fact that her daughter was here I would say she did this just to get on my nerves." Actually he understood completely how awkward this was as he ran into his younger brother not more than three weeks ago and was confronted on where he had been the last ten years or so.

When Lawrence introduced himself Ritsuko was surprised. "This is the man that called mother just before she started acting strange and then disappeared. What is he doing here? And did he have anything to do with mother's disappearance?" While Ritsuko never really got along with her mother she still had a lot of unresolved issues that Naoko's disappearance left up in the air. Even now she still had trouble getting to sleep at night sometimes thinking about what could have happened to her mother. "If he knows anything about her disappearance I'm going to make him talk."

Once everyone was seated Lawrence began the presentation. He had to suppress the shiver that went up his spine as soon as he saw Ritsuko's glare. "That's not a good sign," he thought. "I am sure you all wondering what our machine is." He could see various nods from around the room, "Our machine has been dubbed an Orbital Frame and is powered by a mineral substance called Metatron. Before I continue I must insist that you hold all your judgments and questions until after I am finished." A screen behind him activated and a rough schismatic appeared. The schematic was of Idalo and showed its physical dimensions. Lawrence could tell by the confused and in some cases smug looks they were far from impressed. "Just wait until they see it in action," he thought. "This is our prototype Orbital Frame codenamed Idalo. Its capacities and capabilities are…" He the next half hour he listed off the basic abilities of the mecha. He saw various looks around the room shift room confused and smug to intrigue and down right disbelief. When Lawrence was finished with his briefing the first question came from the Jet Alone representatives.

"You don't actually think this toy could stand up against Angel, do you?" the man asked. His Jet Alone was equal in stature and strength to the Evas and they were deemed unfit to combat the Angels because of the mishap. This thing being presented to him now would barely reach the mid point on the shin of an Eva and Jet Alone.

"It is the Orbital Frames relative small size that give them their advantage," Lawrence replied he was expecting this question. "As I said earlier the power output is on par with that Eva and Jet Alone. With the much smaller size the Orbital Frames are much faster and far more maneuverable, not too mention their flight and orbital capabilities." It was explained the name came from the original idea that the machines were concepts for space flight. That idea flew out the window the moment it was realized that a humanoid weapons platform would be most effective in combating the Angles. The humanoid form aloud for both close range fighting and long distance attacks as well, not too mention the ability to quickly equip different types weapons should the need arise.

This opened up Misato for her question, "And just how does it actually fly and enter orbit for that matter? You never gave the specifics on how it accomplishes this." Misato had to agree with that the ability to fly gave these Orbital Frames a severe tactical advantage over the Evas and the Jet Alone. Now she wanted to know how they accomplished the feet.

Lawrence indicated to the back view on the schematics of Idalo still on the screen. "We used a combination of anti-gravity generators and ion drive propulsion to give the Orbital Frames the necessary lift and thrust to achieve flight and a low orbit." Left unsaid was that the Orbital Frames would reach high orbit once the Zero Shift Drivers were installed as it increased the range of the machines significantly.

"What about the mineral substance you mentioned at the beginning?" Ritsuko asked.

"Ah yes, the Metatron." The image on the screen changed focusing on the center chest area. "The details are considered top secret so I can't tell you exactly what it is. However to put it simply the Metatron is non radioactive mineral substance that produces as much power as a small fusion reactor." He was about to continue when his cell phone rang, "One moment please." After a soft conversation through the phone he hung up, "Well it appears they are ready, me telling you about the capabilities of Idalo and seeing them are too different thing entirely." The screen then retracted into the ceiling and the blinds on the window opened up to the outside. Through the window they could see a large robot kneeling to the ground about two hundred meters away.

At the takeoff site Shinji was sitting in Idalo's cockpit listening to last minute instructions from Naoko. "Now Shinji, we'll be showing off the combat effectiveness of Idalo. That means we'll be using live weapons in this demonstration. Remember your training and you will be fine."

"Y…yes Ma'am," Shinji replied.

Naoko knew Shinji was nervous because he only addressed her as 'Ma'am' when he was. Over the past eleven months the two had developed a psudo aunt/nephew kind of relationship. Normally Shinji would address her by her first name but when he was nervous he would revert to his overly polite and timid nature when speaking with her. "Relax Shinji," Naoko instructed with a soft voice. "Let your training take over and listen to Idalo and you'll do fine."

"Yes, Ma'am," Shinji replied. Naoko signed off with a slight sigh. "Are you ready Idalo?"

"Affirmative Shinji," Idalo replied. "Inciting battle sequence." The cockpit came to life as several systems were turned on and the soft green glow brightened significantly.

From the conference room the group of observers watched as the Orbital Frame rose from its kneeling position. The large ion thrusters on its back flared for a brief moment before it streaked into the air. When Idalo was left the range of clear sight the group turned to several small screens that showed it from several different angles. The watched as several small remote controlled aircraft came into view and the blade on Idalo's arm swing into attack position.

Inside the cockpit Shinji's thought stopped worrying about his performance and shifted into what some of the people at BAHRAM called 'combat mode.' It was a mental state that Shinji developed during the course of his training to help him deal with being soldier. This mental state aloud him to focus on the task of battle without outside distractions. The former solders that BAHRAM employed said it was what some snipers would do in order to make kill shots.

As Idalo approached the first target the AI locked on to it and sliced it in two with a downward slash. Without even the slightest pause it burst forward and avoided several bursts of gunfire. Turning around the AI targeted the two remaining remote controlled opponents and Shinji fired plasma bursts from burst from each hand of the Orbital Frame and incinerated them. "Artillery fire detected at 180 degrees low." Idalo warned. Shinji spun the mecha around and through up the plasma shield blocking the ground based attack. Once the smoke cleared Idalo targeted the ground based artillery pieces and Shinji became to charge the plasma sphere. After only a few seconds charge the sphere was launched it at the target. The sphere hit the target and a blast wave was formed taking out four other launchers near by.

Shinji then climbed in altitude and launched another burst plasma streams at the remaining artillery units. "That should be it for the warm up," Shinji thought. "The next stage should be starting soon."

"Multiple targets entering combat range," Idalo warned.

"Speak of the devil," Shinji then burst forward with the blade at the ready for close range attacks. The new targets numbered around a dozen or so and were divided up between VTOLs and jet aircraft. Shinji knew the weakness of the jet aircraft was close range and wanted to take them out first as they could avoid him easier. As he sliced through the first two his predictions proved true as the fighter craft veered off away from him at high speed to gain some distance. This was actually Shinji's plane as it freed up targets for the plasma streams. He fired them off and four of the six VTOLs went down.

"Multiple missiles incoming," Idalo warned once again. "Too numerous for plasma streams and too close for plasma ball."

"Activate sub-weapon Phalanx," Shinji ordered. Idalo complied and the Orbital Frame reached into its Vector Trap and pulled out said weapon. A target lock appeared on the HUD and the weapon opened fire destroying the missile instantly then an instant later another target appeared on another missile and the weapon continued.

In the conference room everyone had to admit the performance so far was impressive. For the Jet Alone people it was like a kick in the teeth at the showing but could only stew in silence. Misato and Ristuko were comparing the performance the machine was showing with a battle that had not taken place all that long ago, namely the battle between the JSSDH and the Third Angel. The results of that battle were remarkably similar with what they were seeing now, in that conventional weapons were having little to no effect on the Orbital Frame. Still the question remained, how was this machine going to neutralize an Angel's AT field.

Their answer came when the Orbital Frame seemed to reached behind itself and pull and weapon out of seemingly nothing and start to open fire on nearly two dozen missiles coming in close range. The short bursts of rapidly firing energy quickly destroyed all the missiles and Idol put the weapon back and continued systematically destroying all the remote controlled targets it was facing. It was Misato that asked the question that was on just about everyone's minds, "Just how the hell did it do that?"

"Only thing I can think of is that the Orbital Frame is capable of producing a 'Sea of Dirac', and storing additional weapons inside," Ritsuko said. After seeing the confused face of Misato she continued her explanation, "It's essentially a point of condensed space, or a better word pocket of space, that is a result of space that has been folded upon itself."

"I could not have said it better myself, though we prefer the name 'Vector Trap', over 'Sea of Dirac'," a new voice said. Said voice caused the two Nerv representatives to freeze in disbelief. The others in the room turned to the new voice and saw a new woman that barred a striking resemblance with Ritsuko enter the room. "Sorry for being late."

"I'll bet you are," Lawrence muttered. Out loud he addressed the room, "Gentlemen, Ladies allow me to introduce the woman that is responsible for the software that controls the Orbital Frame including its AI Idalo, Dr. Akagi Naoko." The room became silent at the introduction as half looked at the new arrival and the other half looked at Ritsuko.

"Mother," Ritsuko whispered. The only one close enough to hear it was Misato but she was too stunned herself to make any comments.

"The Vector Trap, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how we will defeat the barrier the Angles generate called an AT field," Naoko started to explain. "The AT field is a shield formed by phased space that does not allow anything to penetrate. Only a blast in the megaton range or a highly focused positron beam can even affect it. However the AT field can be neutralized by the application of a similar field. The Evas are able to produce their own AT fields which allows them to fight on even ground. The Vector Trap performs a similar function only instead of encasing and protecting the Orbital Frame it stores the sub-weapons and encases the plasma blasts of the main weapons."

"In other words," Misato spoke up. Her tactical mind going to work analyzing the information and applying it to battle scenarios. "The Vector Trap encases the blasts and when it hits the AT field it neutralizes it and the actual plasma blast hits the real target."

"Correct Captain Katsuragi," Lawrence said. "And as the demonstration appears to be over," the ground turned back to the screens noticing that the Orbital Frame had just destroyed the last target, "let us go outside and you can take a closer look."

As the people started to file out Naoko took a glance at her daughter before following the others out. Ritsuko's eyes never left her mother from the moment she entered the room until she left not a second earlier. "Why she here? Why is she working for them? And were has she been?"

"Can't answer that Rits," Misato said to her best friend. Ritsuko jerked out of her trance and looked at the Nerv Director of Operation. "And you wont' get any if you stay here all day."

"Right," Ritsuko agreed. "Come on I'm going to get some answers!" A bit of anger crept into her voice as she left the conference room.

Outside the main group was slowly approaching Idalo as it landed and dropped into a kneeling position to let Shinji out. When the canopy to the cockpit opened the group saw a young teenager in a black and blue suit climb out. To those that knew what they were, the suit looked a lot like a Plug Suit but nowhere near as tight. No one seemed too shocked, though some were surprised, to see that a fourteen year old as the pilot of such an advanced weapon. After all everyone there knew about the pilots of the Evas were all children of the same age. This led many to believe that there was something far more to the these children then they were first lead to believe. One of these people was a certain captain with dark purple hair.

"Everyone I would like you to meet our first pilot, which we call a Runner, Ikari Shinji," Lawrence introduced. Shinji blushed a bit at the attention and gave a short bow in greeting.

"Ikari?" Misato and Ritsuko whispered. Misato looked at her companion and asked, "As in Commander Ikari?"

"I believe so," Ritsuko answered wondering what this could possibly mean. "First Mother reappears working for this BAHRAM company and then the original Third Child? Just what is going on here?"